T-Bone Burnett

For a long time, T-Bone Burnett's been known as a producer (or even as the husband of Sam Philips), rather than as a performer.

(I'm talking Sam Phillips the singer, not Sam Phillips the Sun record label guy. Just so we understand.)

But T-Bone was a fine performer, and this CD was his best.

T-Bone proves that it is possible to be obsessed equally with women and God. And Disneyland. T-Bone hates Disneyland. ("Nothing here is really real / That crocodile's made out of steel.") In an old interview, T-Bone called Disneyland "sensory fascism." God save T-Bone! (I wish I had saved that interview. Anyone got a copy of that?)

I have one complaint about this edition of the CD: Takoma cut out the coda/break at the end of the LP version of "Driving Wheel." What, not enough space on the CD? Sheez! Fortunately, England's Demon Records has re-re-issued the CD, and they know how to do things right. If their version includes the deleted bit (admittedly, only about a minute or so -- but a crucial minute or so it is), I'll be buying it myself.

(Why do record companies change reissue CDs? The CD version of The Jam's All Mod Cons faded the crowd noise in and out, destroying the "live" illusion; the CD of Cheap Trick's Live at Budokan substitutes a version of "Ain't That a Shame" much inferior to that on the LP. I can't see any reason for this sort of thing.)